The Quarter Horse Queen

Scamfluencers

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.1 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rita Crundwell dreams of raising championship horses, but her day job is much less glamorous: She works in finance for her small city in Illinois. She saves up her paychecks to compete in horse shows, but she still needs more money to get ahead. That’s when she decides to pull off a colossal fraud that will fund her extravagant lifestyle – and completely bankrupt the city that employs her. When it all unravels, it’ll turn out to be the biggest case of municipal embezzlement in U.S. history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to scam influencers add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:12.7	Sachee, when you hear the term horse girl, what comes to mind?
0:17.0	Rich 20 year old girls in Bushwick doing ketamine.
0:21.1	Okay, well I picture something a bit more wholesome. I just honestly picture a girl with a long ponytail and maybe she's a bit of a bitch
0:29.4	but she gets shit done, you know, is she also doing ketamine? She could be.
0:34.0	Okay, all right, then I'm on board. Well, I am about to tell you about the ultimate horse girl. One who actually almost got away with a record breaking scam.
0:46.8	It's November 2011 and thousands of people are gathered in Oklahoma City for the American Quarter Horse Association's World Championship show.
0:55.8	This is like the Super Bowl of the Horseshoe World. It is a very big deal.
1:01.2	But there's one woman who's the biggest deal of all. She's probably rolling up in her 2.1 million dollar RV.
1:08.6	Her name is Rita Crandwell and she's a blonde in her 50s. She's wearing a huge white cowboy hat and a matching bedazzled jacket.
1:17.0	She's known for her fancy show outfits with shirts at cost around $1,800.
1:23.0	And it's not just a giant RV and bougie fits that make Rita V1 to watch here.
1:28.2	She's also got a caravan of trailers with her initials emblazoned on the side and the small herd of horses.
1:33.9	Most competitors have one or two, maybe three horses here today, but Rita's got six times that.
1:41.5	The more horses an owner has, the more wins they can rack up.
1:45.4	And no one is surprised when Rita wins the Oklahoma City Leading Owner Award for the 8th year in a row.
1:52.9	It's her undisputed crown.
1:54.8	She's leagues ahead of her competitors, mostly because she spent millions over the last two decades buying and breeding some 400 quarter horses.
2:04.3	But Rita is hiding a dark secret.
2:07.0	Her dominance has only been possible because she's running one of the biggest city government scams ever.
2:13.4	She's stealing practically every last penny from her hometown.
2:17.6	When the truth comes out, it'll topple her worst kingdom and make her infamous.
	...

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